hour then take all out that is melted in the Crucible and consider well the weight of it and according to the goodnesse of your Elixir make projection for medicine And thus you have created and compounded spiritual Electrum of the weight of seven ounces consisting of seven metals which metals so converted into medicine will be the Elixir of Electrum and an Universal medicine for you need not after regard upon what body or metall you project it It is also the chiefest medicine for mans body for although three or four of all the Diseases of the Microcosm were united together yet they may be cured with this one medicine If you dissolve part of this in Spirit of VVine and distill away the same spirit in Balneo and the Oyl of the medicine or Elixir remain in the bottome as is taught in the second book you shall have the chiefest medicine of life and most Noble Aurum potabile Note that if your Iron melt not well then dissolve your Electrum in the Oyl or Tincture of Mars dissolving and congeling until it have imbibed a sufficient quantity But if you desire to make corporeal Electrum when your medicine beginneth to fail to convert metals any more into medicine then in like manner project your medicine upon your melted metals or bodies and they will be converted into corporeal Electrum metallick and malleable of the vertue of which as I do endeavour to write nothing so also of its vice or rather of the viciousnesse of those that abuse it I will touch a little sparingly Paracelsus writeth that Virgill Hispanus and Trithemius made a Diabolical Bell of this Artificiall Electrum upon which when they would invocate Spirits which they called by a more decent name of Intelligences they writ the Character of what Spirit they desired and at the third ring of the bell the Spirits obeyed their desires so long as they desired to talk with them and when they would talk no more they hid the Character and by the reverse ringing of the bell the Spirits departed He that will forsake God and require knowledge aid and assistance from the Devil let him share with Arbucell and with him descend to the Infernal Lake But we that are true Magicians or rather Philosophers confiding in God the Father and the holy Trinity approving of Natural and lawful Magick or true Philosophy but accounting the supernatural altogether infamous and unlawful And we require the doctrine and wisdome of divine goodnesse and the holy Spirit to whom be honour and glory for evermore Amen CHAP. IX The eighth Table which explaineth the meaning of the Philosophers when they speak of the tenth Number wherein the Elixir is finished And also sheweth the wonderfull secret of the Animal stone out of George Riply with two other of his workes WE now come to the Last Chapter of this Book wherein is declared what the Philosophers mean when they bid us finish the worke in the tenth number it is to be understood that as out of the Hyle or Chaos four are divided so out of the Hyle or Chaos of metals Because metals or bodies when they are dissolved into liquor then they are contained in the first or one number which is the solution of the body of which by distillation is made two That is to say Heaven and Earth the Menstruum and Salt that which remaineth in the bottome is the Earth or Salt that which is distilled over is the Menstruum and Heaven And so you have One two When the Menstruum is separated it is divided into Three that is to say into Water Air and Fire Yet it is to be noted that the Air which is the first part of the water containing an aery disposition although it be in the form of water yet it is reputed aer by reason of the consimilitude of the quality and after its perfect rectification it is a tinging Mercury and the white Spirit of metals In like manner is to be considered of the Oyl which although it is not in the form of fire but a liquor yet by reason of its Ardent heat it is called fire and the Soul or red tinging Mercury And so there is One Two Three When there is a Conjunction of these three that is to say the air and water with its Salt or Earth in putrefaction these three are united into one quintessence and are made a new body in which three are united in one Sulphur which Sulphur is the true Philosophers Mercury and in making this white Sulphur you have once turned the Philosophers wheel But that the work may be perfected in the tenth Number if you adde the fire which is the fourth Element to these three concluded in the foresaid unity and rubified then if these four in a new Conjunction be putrified in a lent fire of ashes then it is the stone for in this work it changeth colours again and is converted into a red stone and by this means you have joyned four into one that is to say 1.2.3.4 make ten And so the stone is finished in the tenth number because you have turned the Philosophers wheel twice as Ripley witnesseth thus But yet again two times turn about the wheel The stone is to be dissolved again with the fire or Soul or Tincture and dried again until it pierce and flow then it is to be fermented into Elixir with the Oyl of the Luminary and so you have turned the Philosophers wheel again which is then called the medicine of the third order Of the solution of this Ripley hath writ these verses teaching the resolution of the white and red stone before it be transmuting Elixir calling them his Bases saying Do as I bid thee then dissolve these foresaid Bases witty And turn them into perfect Oyls with our true water Ardent By Circulation that must be done according to our Intent These Oyls will fix crude Mercury and convert bodies all Into perfect Sol and Luna when thou shalt make projection That Oylie Substance pure and fixt Raymond Lully did call His Basilisk of which he never made so plain detection By which verses it plainly appeareth his Bases were onely two Sulphurs or two stones which in another place he called his Mineres and these mineres ought to be dissolved by his Ardent water by circulation of the Oyl or soul upon the Sulphur until it become a stone for in this place he takes both the spirit and the soul for the Ardent water willing that the spirit and soul be administred according to their tinging natures for the resolution of the proper Basis And thus have you the words of this Aenigma explained of the tenth number which seeing it is the end of the Art I have reserved it till the end It now remaineth that we reveal one secret of Ripley which was never spoken of by any Philosopher that is to say the manner of making the Sulphur of Nature out of the Minere of the Microcosm which is mans blood of
the white stone of Mercury Take the third part which before you reserved and fixed called the glue of the Eagle as much of it as you please and add thereto equal weight of its spirit or Lac Virginis and close up the glass and so you have joined the Man and the woman ☿ with his own Earth the spirit with the body See the Holy Guid. Set your Lac Virginis thus joyned with his own Each in Balneo to putrine 150 days and there let it stand unmoved after forty days it will be black and it is then called the head of the Crow then it will be of a green colour after that the Peacocks tail and many false colours for between this and white it will appear red but at last you shall see it white and then encrease your fire and it will stick to the sides of the glasse like fishes eyes Then have you each in the nature of Sulpher Read the Holy Guid. Take of this Sulphur as much as you please and weigh it and add thereto two parts of the white Tincture or Lac Virginis and set it in Balneo to dissolve the space of six days then distill away the Lac Virginis or Tincture and the Sulphur will remain in the form of Liquor for it is the Liquor of the white sulphur of ☿ which is to be joined with the Liquor of the sulphur of Luna or siver The Sulphur of the white Luminary or silver or Luna is made as the other whereof we shall speak more in the next Branch This Liquor of the sulphur is the soul which is joined with the spirit and body which quickeneth the whole stone The other conjunction before was onely the union of the spirit and the body but this is a threefold copulation viz. The uniting of the soul spirit and body Adde equal weight of these two Liquors of sulphur that is to say the liquor of the sulphur of Mercury and of silver and Luna and close well the glasse and set it in Ashes till it be white for it will be of all coulours again and at last white And then is it the perfect stone converting all Mettalls into silver This stone or Elixir is thus multiplied in vertue dissolve it in your Lac Virginis and distill it away and dry it and dissolve it again c. And let it be so often dissolved and dryed till it will drie no more but remain in an incombustible oyl And is then Elixer of the third Order Take one part of this Elixir and project it upon 100 or 1000 parts of melted silver according to the goodness and vertue thereof and it will turn the silver into a brittle Mass or substance which beat to powder in an Iron or brasse Morter or upon a Marble and project one part of this powder upon 100 parts of ☿ purged made hot and it will be perfect medicine whereof one part turneth 100 or 1000 parts of other bodies into good silver And this way is your Medicine multiplyed in quantity A Corollary IT remaineth now that we speak of the Medicine or the Elixir of Life which is called potable silver But although the Liquor of silver may be made potable silver if it be corroberated before by digestion in Balneo 7 days with the spirit of wine and then distill away the said spirit of wine that the oyl of the silver may remain in the bottome which may easily be given for medicine Yet the Philosophers would have us do otherwise for they teach us to bring the mettalls first into their quintessence before they be taken inwardly and that their is no other quintessences but those that are of a second nature according to the old saying Elixir de te est res secunda De quo sunt facta corpora munda That is to say the 4 Elements are destroyed and by putrifaction a new body created and made into a stone which is the quintessence as Ripley would have it But I do boldly and constantly affirm that there is no true silver or potable silver nor Qintessence unless it be first Elixir and that is done in a quarter of an hour by projection of the Elixir upon silver or pure gold molten according as the Elixir was red or white If therefore you desire after the first composition of the Elixir to make the Arcanum of Argentum or Aurum potabile project the Elixir or Medicine according to his quality or property upon pure silver or gold molten and then it is made brittle and frangible and grind it to powder and take thereof so much as you please and dissolve it in distilled vinegar or rather in spirit of wine the space of nine days then distill away the vineger or spirit of wine that which remaineth in the bottome is the true Medicine Quintessence Elixir of life Ferment of ferments and incombustible oyl converting mettalls and Mans body into perfect health from all diseases of mans body which proceed from Mercury and Luna And thus is the true potable silver made cureing the Vertigo Sincope Spilepsy Madness Phrency Leprosie c. And this is the right way of making the stone of Mercury alone but the Elixir cannot be made without the Addition of silver to the white and of gold to the red CHAP. II. 1 Luna 2 pure Silver 3 Calcination 4 Solution 5 Putrefaction 6 The Sulphur 7 The Liquor of the Sulphur 8 White Ferment HERMES saith The Elixir is nothing else but Mercury Sol and Luna by Mercury nothing is understood but the sulphur of nature which is called the true ☿ of the Phylosophers and that sulphur gotten by putrifaction by the conjunction of the spirit and of the body of imperfect bodyes or mettals By Sol is meant gold by Luna silver both of them are to be joyned to imperfect bodies that is to say white sulphurs and red whence the same Hermes in his treatise of Sol saith there happeneth a conjunction of two bodies and it is necessary in our Maistry And if one of these bodies onely were not in our stone it would never by any means give any Tincture Upon which Morienus saith For the Ferment prepareth the imperfect body and converteth it to its own nature and there is no Ferment but Sol and Luna that is gold and silver Of which Rosinus Sol and Luna prepared that is â—o say their sulphurs are the ferments of mettles in colour See the Holy Guid. But this is made more evident by Raymund in his Apertory where he saith there is no ferment except Sol and Luna for the Ferment of the stone to white is silver and to the red gold as the Phylosophers do demonstrate because without ferment there doth proceed neither gold nor silver nor any thing else that is of its kind or nature therefore join the Ferment with its sulphur that it may beget its like because the Ferment draweth the sulphur to its own colour and nature also and weight and sound because every like begetteth its like Because the
red work and no man can make a shorter abreviation in the world And when the sulphur of any body is prepared it may this way very speedily be converted into Elixir by adding the liquor of the ferment CHAP VI. 1 The Body 2 The Spirit 3 The Lion 4 The Eagle 5 The Phylosophers Lead 6 Antimony 7 Antimony Mercury 8 The Glue of the Eagle 9 Solution of the red Lion into Blood 10 Solution of the Glue of the Eagle 11 Solution of the Blood of the red Lion 12 Conjunction 13 Putrifaction 14 The Stone 15 Fermentation 16 In the Trinity of The Phisical and Alchimical Tincture The Soul 17 Is the Vnity of the Medicine TAke Antimony calcined so much as you please and grind it to a subtile powder then take twice so much Lac Virginis and put your powder of Antimony therein and set it in balneo 7 days then put it into a body and set it in sand or ashes till the Lac be turned red which draw of and pour on more and so let it stand when that is coloured red pour it to the other and thus do till you have drawn out all the tincture set all this water in balneo or lent ashes to distill with a Limbeck and distill it with a lent fire and first of all the Lac will ascend then you shall see a stupendious Miracle because you shall see through the nose of the Alimbeck is it were a thousand veins of the liquor of this blessed minere to descend in red drops just like bloud which when you have got thou hast a thing whereto all the treasure in the world is not equall Now you have the blood of the Lion according to Rupesissa let us here rest a little and speak of the Glew of the Eagle of which Paracelsus thus saith Reduce Mercury so far by sublimation till it be a fixed Christall this is his preparation of Mercury and his way of reducing it into the Glew of the Eagle but above all I require that that way be used which is described by me before in the first Chapter or that hereafter set down after this Then saith the foresaid Author go on to resolution and coagulation and I again will you to observe the same manner of solution shewed in the first Chapter before Now let us come to conjunction after the solution of these two take equal weight of them and put them in a vessel well shut After you have thus joined them together set your glass in your furnace to putrifie and alter the space of certain days Therefore Paracelsus saith then at length and presently after your Lili is made hot in your glass it appeareth in wonderful manners or demonstrations blacker then the Crow after that in process of time whiter then the Swan and then passing by yellow to be more red then bloud This being putrified and turned into red is to be taken for the stone and then it is time it be fermented Of which Fermentation Paracelsus thus speaketh one part thereof is to be projected upon 1000 parts of molton gold and then the medicine is prepared and this is the Fermentation of it But if the half or one part of the liquor of the sulphur of gold before described be added to it then it would be spirituall ferment and would be much more penetrating in fortitude and fusible as Paracelsus doth testifie in his Aurora where he would have us to join the star of the sun or the oyl of sol to this stone And thus the phisical Alchimical tincture is performed in a short time for curing all manner of Infirmities and humane diseases which is also the great Elixir for mettals so courtly concealed by the Antients Which Hermes Trismagistus the Aegyptian Osus the Gretian Haly an Arabian and Albertus Magnus a German with many others have sought and prosecuted every one after their own method and one in one subject another in another so much desired by the Philosophers onely for prolongation of life In this composition Mercury is made a fixed and dissolved body the blood or spirit of the red Lion is the ferment or soul and so of trinity is made unity which is called the Phisical and Alchimicall tincture never before that I knew of collected or writ in one work And I swear I had not done this except that otherwise the composition of this blessed medecine had for ever been forgot A shorter way to make the glue of the Eagle If you desire to make the glue of the Eagle in a breifer way Take part of the red precipitate prose as is taught before in the table of Mercury and dissolve it in distilled vineger and the vineger will be coloured into a yelow or delightfull golden colour and after you have destilled away the vineger there will remain in the bottome a white substance of the Mercury fixed and fair which is to be joyned to the oyle of the Lion And this work is much shorter and less laborious look more hereof in the third Book The Calcination of Antimony into the red Lion Take Antimony well ground so much as you please and melt it in naked fire with salt Armoniack and when it is melted cast it suddainly into a vessel almost full of distilled vineger wherein salt Armoniack hath been dissolved and thus melt it and cast it in three times then pour off the vineger from the Calx of the Antimony and drie it well and grind it small and dissolve it as before is taught and so have you the Red Lion of the Philosophers Lead or Antimony CHAP. VII 1 Elixir 2 Conjunction 3 Seperation 4 the Stone 5 Fermentation 6 The Earth 7 Spirit oyl Blood of the Lambe 8 Distillation 9 Resolution 10 Putrifaction 11 Solution 12 Vitrioll 13 Calcination 14 Copper The first Chapter of the Elixir of Copper MAny have sought out the way of the Mineral stone in vitrioll or green Copperas but they were altogether received which common vitrioll by the Philosophers is called the green Lion of fools But this our noble red Lion taketh its original from the Metallick body of Copper Although I am not ignorant how to draw an oyl out of Romain vitrioll of a more sweet smell and delightfull taste then any balsome if the Tincture be taken out of the calcined vitrioll in spirit of wine yet the Philosophers will is and command that it do consist of a Metallick vertue wherewith the transmutaion of mettalls is to be effected Therefore they say it is to be made of bodies and not of spirits as of vitrioll sulphur as well and the like Whence I find it written in the Philosophers Turba and in the first Exercitation But the Philosophers stone is a metallick matter converting the substances and forms of imperfect mettalls and it is concluded by all the Philosophers that the conversion is not made except by its like therefore it is necesary that the Philosophers stone be made of a metallick matter yet if any be made of
most fusible as Lead or Tinne which after they are purified are most apt by reason of their easie melting And thus the Inward parts of the Earth are visited and by reflection the hiden stone is found the true Medicine out of the green Lion of the Philosophers and not of fools and out of Corporeal and metallick vitrioll not terrestrial and made of mineral coperas The Second Chapter of Augmentation and projection of the STONE FIRST Let us speak of the Augmentation of the vertue or quality of which Raymund saith The Augmentation in quality and goodness is by solution and coagulation of the Tincture that is to say by imbiling it with our Mercury and drying it But let us hear Arnoldus more attentively take one part of your prepared Tincture and dissolve it in three parts of our Mercury then put it in a glass and seal it up and set it in ashes till it be dry and come to a powder then open the glass and imbile it again and dry it again And the oftener you do the thus so much sha you gain and giveth more tincture And also as it is found in Clangor Buccinae Dissolve it in the water of Mercury of which the Medicine was made till it be clear then congeal it by light decoction and imbile it with its oyl upon the fire till it flow by vertue whereof it will be doubled in tincture with all its perfections as you will see in projection because the weight that was before projected upon a thousand is now to be projected upon ten thousand and there is no great labour in this multiplication Again the medicine is multiplyed two manner of ways By solution of calidity and solution of varity By solution of calidity is that you take the Medicine put in a glass vessel and burie it in our moist fire seven days or more till the medicine be dissolved into water without any turbulency By solution of rarity is that you take your glass vessel with your medicine and hang it in a new brass pot full of water that boileth and close up the mouth of the pot that the medicine may dissolve in the vapour of the boiling water But note that the boiling water must not touch the glass wherein the medicine is but hang above it three fingers and this solution will be above it in 2 or 3 days after your medicine is dissolved take it from the fire to cool fix and congeal and be hard and dry this do often and and how much the more the medicine shall be dissolved it will be so much more perfect and such a solution is the sublimation of the medicine and its virtual sublimation which the oftener it is reiterated so much more abundantly and more parts it tingeth Whence Rasis saith the goodness of this multiplication consisteth in the reiteration sublimation and fixation of the medicine and by how much more this order is repeated it worketh so much more and is augmented for so often as you sublime your medicine and dissolve it you shall gain so much every time in projection one upon a thousand and if the first fall upon a thousand the third upon a hundred thousand the fourth upon a million and so infinitely For Morienus the Philosopher saith Know for certain that the oftener our stone is dissolved and congealed the spirit and soul is joined more to the body and is retained by it and in every time the Tincture is multiplyed Whence we thus read in Scala Philosophorum which also the Philosophers say Dissolve and congeal so without doubt it is understood of the solution of the body and soul with the spirit into water and congealation makes the soul and spirit mix with the body and if with one solution and simple congealation the soul and spirit would be perfectly joined to the body the Philosophers would not say dissolve again and congeal and again dissolve and congeal that the Tincture of the stone may grow if it could be done with one congealation only The Medicine is another way multiplyed by fermentation and the ferment to the white is pure silver and the ferment to the red is pure gold therefore project one part of your medicine upon a of the ferment but I say 3 parts of the medicine upon one of the ferment and all will be Medicine which put in a glass upon the fire and so close it that no air go in nor out and keep it there till it be subtiliated as you did with the first medicine and one part of the second medicine will have as much vertue as one part of the first medicine had but here again Clangor Buccinae hath erred for it should be write thus one part of the second medicine will have as much vertue as ten parts of the first medicine had And thus by solution and fermentation the medicine may be multiplied infinitely We have spoken enough of this multiplication we now come to the other way of augmentation which is called corporeal multiplication and according to Raymund is thus defined Augmentation is the Addition of Quantity whence Anicen writeth It is hard to project upon a million and to preducate it incontinently wherefore I will reveal one great secret unto you one part is to be mixed with a thousand parts of its nearest in kind I call that nearest that is the body of the same mettal whereof the medicine was made or perfected but to return again to Anicen close all this firmly in a fit vessel and set it in a furnace of fusion 3 days till it be wholly joined together Whereof it is more largely and better set down by the said Author and the manner of the work is thus projected one part of the foresaid medicine upon 100 parts of molten gold and it makes it brittle and will all be medicine whereof one part projected a hundred of any melted mettall converteth it into pure gold and if you project it upon silver in like manner it converteth all bodies into silver In Scala Philosophorum all sorts of projection is set thus down in few words You must know that first it is said project that is to say one upon 100 c. yet it is better to project nunc dimittis upon fundamenta and fundamenta upon verba mea and verba mea upon diligans te Domine and diligam te upon attendite This breif Aenigua is thus expounded it is nothing else but the words and opinion of the former Author concealed under the Aenigura Therefore let us repeat the words of this Aenigura or Oraccle Nunc dimittis super fundamenta Fundamenta super verba mea Verba mea super diligam te Diligamte super attendite These are trifles for the hiding and concealing the perfection of the Art if the expert Artist could be diverted with such simple words which though they are hard at first to young Artists yet they are thus explained We therefore begin with the first sentence Nunc dimittis super
Christopher Heydon saith in a certain Manuscript of his Levi enim Arte norunt Alchimistae Mercurium currentem conficere explumbo that is to say the Alchimists knew how by an easie Art to make current Mercury out of Lead but what Art that was neither he nor any of the ancients have shewed unto us Quaerite quaerite saith the first Alchimist so Paracelsus was pleased to say in imitation of him invenietis pulsate operietur vobis that is to say Seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you which may rather seem to be the words of an envious Master then the precepts of a Teacher But having learned this I learned to seek that is to say to read I read I knocked that is I tried many experiments although they were repugnant to doctrine and Philosophy therefore although I almost despaired of that Art yet because nothing is difficult to the industrious by often knocking at last I found it apart by what means I attained to the Art of such a facility that is to say of making Quick-silver of Lead and when the process is read to the operator it will be rather rejected then believed but to the end this Art may be revealed as a great secret I thought it necessary to speak first of the Instruments necessary in this work before I come to declare the doctrine which are three in number that is to say a Furnace a Crucible and a pair of Tongs as appeareth in the Holy Guide CHAP. III. The Crucible the Furnace the Hole in the Top of the Furnaee the Tongues the Coals LEt the Furnace be D the place filled with Coles E whereunto put fire and when the Coals are well burnt so that they give a clear flame and fire take your Crucible A well anailed that it break not with the suddain heat and put therein three ounces of filed Lead having twelve ounces of Mercury sublimate well ground and Salt Armoniack six ounces mixed together which put upon the filings of Lead into the Crucible A and when the fire is strong and glowing hot â—ake your Tongs C and presently take up your Crucible and put it in B the hole in the top of the Furnace till you hear a great noise and buzâ—ing then so soon as you can least the Quicksilver flie away with the spirits take away the Crucible with the matter therein and set it in an earthen dish filled with ashes to cool and when it is cold strike the lower part of the Crucible so that the matter of the Lead may fall into an earthen dish and you shall find your Lead conâ—erted into Quick-silver This Crucible and Furnace is at large characteâ—ed in the Holy Guide This work is to be reiterated with new spirits â—ill you have a sufficient quantity of Quick-silâ—er with which proceed as followeth to precipitate this Quick-silver that from a spirit it may be converted into a fixed body by fixation Take of this Quick-silver so much as you please and put it to precipitate in a round glass well luted and set it in ashes to the top of the glass yet let us stay here a while that your unstanding may be the more enlightened Therefore understand that the intention of this work is to fix the spirit which may sooner be done with the spirit of a fixed body which before was Homogeneal with the body and which of its own nature desireth to joyn again with its body Therfore nature requireth that she may be helped by Art in this work to which the Artist consenting he adminstreth thereto the pure and desired metal which it delighteth to adhere unto which metal is Gold which is thus prepared thaâ— it be sooner parted by the Quick-silver and sticâ— thereunto Take as much pure Gold as you please and dissolve it in aqua regis mixed with equal part oâ— acetum acerrimum or Lac virginis then set 〈◊〉 to digest the space of a day then put your dissolution into an Alimbeck and set it Balneo tâ— distill away the water as dry as you can and dâ— thus three times and the third time distill it iâ— ashes that the Salt Armoniack may sublime Theâ— put distilled Vinegar upon the matter remaining and after it hath stood three days in Balneo distiâ—â— the Vinegar away in ashes that all the substancâ— of the Salt Armoniack may sublime and do thâ—â— three times always putting in new Vinegar uâ—till the Oyl of the dissolved Gold remain in thâ— bottom then take of your Quick-silver three times so much as your Gold and pour it upon the solution of the Gold that they may mix together and be united then put your quick-silver with the solution in a round Glass stopped onely with a peece of Cotton and with a stick put it down every day as it doth ascend and keep your Glass â—n ashes the space of a moneth till your quick-silver be turned into a red precipitate then again dissolve it in new distilled Vinegar till the whole substance of the quick-silver be dissolved and the Vinegar be coloured in a golden colour then diâ—â—ill away the Vinegar in ashes and again preâ—ipitate the quick-silver which is in the bottom â—f a Gold colour into a red and fixed body and 〈◊〉 have you the Mercury precipitate of Saâ—â—rne It remaineth now that the body be imbibed â—ith its soul that this being from a spirit reduâ—â—d into a body may again imbibe its soul that it â—ay be dissolved therewith therefore put it into 〈◊〉 Glass and add thereto equal proportion of its â—ul or water of Paradice and shut your Glass â—ell the space of five days till the body be disâ—â—ved with the soul Then dry it in ashes till it penetrate and flow â—â—d when it is dried try it upon a hot Iron plate it be fixed and melt if not imbibe it again with â—f the weight of its water and do so till you â—â—ke it fusible and piercing by imbibing and â—â—ying it and when it will melt in the fire and penetrate it is then the stone and fit for fermenâ—ion We have said enough of the manner of fermentation in the second Book and therefore it is not necessary to repeat it here and so after fermentation it will be the Elixir Then it is to be augmented and projected as is before declared and thus the work of Saturne is accurtated of which George Ripley saith Adrop is the father of the stone Sericon his brother Lympha his fister the earth its mother But if you desire to know all the secret of Saturne or Lead I will set you down one process out of Paracelsus when you have well prepared the heart of Saturne saith he take two or three ounces of that heart and grind it small with double weight of Salt-peter and put it in a subliming Glass with a head well luted to sublime encreasing the fire by little and little as long as any thing will ascend or sublime thus far Paracelsus now if you find this
true Ripley will tell you what you shall do with it in these words When by the violence of the fire in the distillation of the Gum of the Sericon a certain white matter shall ascend sticking to the head of the Limbeck like Ice keep this matter which hath the property of Sulphur not burning and is a fit matter for receiving form you shall give it form after this manner by rubifying it in ashes and when it is red Sulphur give it of its soul until it pierce and flow then ferment it Here I have delivered unto you all the ways and manners of Saturne which are found in any of the Philosophers Books to the end therefore that the work may be compleated with a demonstration of this word Plumbum Philosophorum at appears in the Practical Compendium of Ripley we say that the Philosophers Lead is not taken for Antimony but for Adrop being converted into the Gum of Sericon It remaineth now that we in order treat of the third termination of this Book therefore after we have done with Saturne it is necessary to speak of Jupiter viz. Tin but because there are many other ways of handling Saturne besides those we mentioned therefore we refer the Reader thither seeing he followeth his footsteps for he is the off-spring of Saturne and naturally born from him CHAP. IV. The third Table of the Elixir of Iron IT is not necessary to prefix a peculiar Table to this metal alone because it is set down before this book nevertheless I will here reckon up its parts and operations as followeth 1. Calcination 2. Solution 3. Seperation 4. Conjunction 5. Putrefaction 6. Sulphur 7. Fermentation 8. Elixir Exaltation or augmentation and projection is spoken of sufficiently in the former Books Mars being most earthly of all the Planets or bodies it is not to be doubted but that it may easily be reduced into a body with little labor and therefore most easily converted into Salt which is done by Calcination therefore we will first shew his conversion into Salt Understand therefore that hence ariseth a twofold consideration that is to say that it be calcined one way into its body or Salt the other way that the body be prepared for solution by calcination The practice differeth but a little for whether you calcine Iron for its Salt or its Menstruum one onely manner of preparation sufficeth That is to say that you take filings of Iron or Steel as much as you please and mix therewith equal weight of Sulphur in an earthen body with a Limbeck will luted thereto then set it in ashes to sublime till all the Sulphur be sublimed from it then dissolve the filings which remain in the bottom in Aqua Regia and it will be converted into Salt which will be cleansed from the said water if you put thereon distilled Vinegar and distill it away do thus three times with new Vinegar and you shall have a yellowish red Salt in the bottom which then is a body to be joyned to the soul which keep in warm ashes till you use it Now for the practice of Iron for dissolution take filings of Iron or Steel so much as you please and put it in an Iron dish filled with Vinegar and set it in the flaming fire the space 〈◊〉 three hours then take it out and let it cool reiterate this work four or five times the calcine it with Sulphur as you did before When it is thus calcined set it to dissolve in a corrosive water by adding equal weight of our acetum acerrimum and let it stand till it have dissolved so much as it can in the cold then set it in hot ashes and let it stand there the space of four or five days pour off the water and dry which is not dissolved and again calcine it and dissolve it and when it is dissolved so as the water be coloured red pour it out into a body and keep it till you have dissolved as much calcined Iron as you please Then take all your dissolutions and with an Alimbeck distill away the water in Balneo and put distilled Vinegar upon the matter remaining in the bottom and let it stand upon it in Balneo the space of seven days then take out your Glass and filter the dissolution and then again in Balneo distill off the Vinegar and in the bottom will remain a thick Oyl of the Iron or Steel but if it be not dissolved to your mind reiterate your solution in Raymunds calcinative water but it would be better if it were edulcorated with Aqua vitae drawing it away again in Balneo and so you have your Iron dissolved into a liquor Therefore proceed to distillation that there may be a separation and distill it in an earthen Vessel in a strong fire encreasing the fire as much as you can and receive the oyl or soul or red tincture of Mars separated from the remaining feces by the nose of the Limbeck which oyl is the most permanent tincture for colouring Sulphures for the red work or for exaltation of all Elixirs in colour for it makes it tinge and colour higher When you have thus prepared the tincture then proceed to conjunction and work with the Salt before reserved taking three or four ounces of the Salt and equal weight of the soul Then seal it up and set it to putrifie in Balneo and keep it there till it pass through all colours and be white and then it is Sulphur of Nature Then take out your Glass and set it in ashes in a greater degree of heat till it be red then dissolve the red Sulphur with its own soul and again dissolve and fix it dissolving it in Balneo and fixing it under the fire and so it is prepared for fermentation The fermentation is as hath often been spoken of before with the resolved oyl of the Sulphur of Gold in a fourfold proportion to the Medicine that by the addition of the ferment it may be made Elixir transmuting all bodies And note that this Elixir of Iron excelleth all other Elixirs for it rubifieth more and tingeth higher and is better for mans body for it prevaileth against the spleen constringeth the belly and cureth wounds it knitteth broken bones together and stoppeth the superfluous Flux of the Courses CHAP. V. The fourth Table of the Physical and Alchymical Tincture out of the red Lyon and Glue of the Eagle drawn out from the Authors experience IT is chiefly to be remembred how we first taught you to dissolve Antimony with out acetum acerrimum which may be also well done if you dissolve it in our calcinative water and after that Antimony is calcined which we spoke of in the end of the second book it is also to be remembred that in the end of the book I spoke of the Glue of the Eagle in the sixth Table of the first book these being remembred it is to be understood that we attribute no other beginning to this accurtation
except that where before we took the blood of the red Lyon and the Glue of the Eagle when they were both destroyed we now joyn them sound and not hurt together that they living may mortifie and dissolve themselves which I have fitly called Corporeal Matrimony or the Union for in this wedlock they dye together that they may be vivified in the Celestial Matrimony therefore it is not to be wondred if this Table differ from the other for this pertaineth to the handling of spirits the other way teacheth the manner of making the Elixir of bodies therefore we now come to demonstrate the foregoing Table Therefore that I may plainly reveal all things unto you take Antimony well ground half a pound and as much Mercury sublimate likewise ground and grind them both togeth upon a marble till you cannot know them one from another then set them in a cold place that the matter dissolving may drop into a Glass set underneath for when the matters are well mixed together then say that they will both shortly be dissolved when the water is perfectly dissolved it will be of a greenish colour and lothsome smell Put this water with the thick part with it into a Glass and let it stand the space of three days in a fixatory under the fire and in short time you shall see your dissolvedness of a brownish black colour and after that is to say in the foresaid time it will be red something higher then red Lead Dissolve this calcined matter in Raymunds calcinative water and when you have dissolved it all into a red liquor or deep yelow then is your matter brought well into its Chaos Put this liquor into a fit body with an Alimbeck and receiver and by distallation separate the red oyl or the red Mercury from the white body which remaineth in the earth and if any matter ascend into the head of the Alimbeck despise it not but trie if it be fixed and if it be not fixed enough sublime it till it be fixed Whereunto joyn equal weight of its soul for the Celestial Matrimony and always leave out the earth in the bottom if you have any sublimate fixed if not take the white earth remaining in the bottom with which proceed as before is said and joyn the white body with the soul when they are thus joyned or married set them to impregnate and revivifie in Bulneo till it pass through all colours and at last be converted into red which then is the stone The manner of Fermentation Augmentation both in quantity and quality and projection is spoken of before in other works And thus Sons Brethren and Reader I have delivered and opened and also have amended many things all the secrets of the Ancient Philosophers whose writings were rather published to conceal the Art then to make it manifest or teach it although it pleased Hermes Trismegistus the first writer of this Art both to say and protest that he had never revealed taught nor prophesied any thing of this Art to any exept fearing the day of Judgement or the damnation of his Soul for shuning the danger thereof even as he received the gift of Faith from the Author of Faith so he left it to the faithful yet when you read his writings either in his Smaragdine Table or in his Apocalips or his twelve Golden Gates and shall find nothing plain or manifest what will you think of such an Author Believe me all the Ancients have concealed the secret of their preparations in the gross work although they writ most famously of the Philosophical operation therefore I have used my endeavour to trye for out of their writings I found that the Elixir might be made of the Planets or Mettals and also of mean Minerals which came more neer to a metallick nature then reading more I found a certain method amongst them all as it were with one consent or voice on this wise First and principally that bodies should be made incorporeal that is to say discorporated or discompounded which then is called the Hyle or Chaos Secondly That out of this Chaodical substance which is one thing three Elements should be separated and purified Thirdly That the separated and purified elements should be joyned the man and the woman the body and the soul heaven and earth with infinite other names so called that the ignorant might think they were diverse which onely were nothing else but water and Salt or the body and spirit or soul that is to say white Mercury and red which they joyned together that a new and pure body might be created in putrefaction that a Microcosmical infant might be created in imitation of the Creation that is to say Sulphur of Nature Fourthly That it should be fed with Milk that is to say with its own proper Tincture and after nourished by Fermentation that it may grow to its perfect strength Having learned these I begun to practice and in the practice of every body and spirit I found diverse errors but reading more and trying more at last I found the manner and true way of dissolving all bodies separating and conjoyning them finding the composition of their secret of secrets that is to say Lac virginis or Acetum acerrimum and Raymunds calcining water wherewith I dissolved all bodies at pleasure and perfected the gross work wherefore I purposed contrary to the custome of the Philosophers to reveal the whole work lest I being envious should be the Author of error like them therefore I have added their works to my own experiments and inventions which are plainly and truely writ that the Artist need to read no books but mine for herein is almost all things contained which are found plainly writ by the Philosophers and also those things which are found true by my own experience Now you have all things methodically in this Art without error with which by the help of God you may attain to the end Alchymy revealeth and openeth unto us four other secrets The first is the composition of Pearls far greater and fairer then natural ones which cannot be perfectly done without the help of the Elixir The second is the manner of making precious Stones of ignoble ones by the same Art which we taught before in malleable Glass The third is the manner of making artificial Carbunckles in imitation of natural ones which few or none have spoken of The fourth is the manner of making Mineral Amber of which Paracelsus hath onely writ in his book of vexations of Philosophers and in the last Edition of his works in the six of his Archidoxes but because they cannot be made without the help of the Elixirs therefore they deserve a place amongst the Elixirs of the fourth that is to say of the vertue or rather the vice of making Amber I shall handle it coldly I have reserved the explanation of this Aenigma till the last place wherefore it is said that the Elixir is perfected in the Decimal number CHAP. VI.
transformed and made as God As the Lord spake concerning Moses saying I have made thee the God of Pharoah this is the true Rosie Crucian Philosophy of wonderful works that they understand not the Key thereof is the intellect for by how much higher things we understand with so much the sublimer vertues are we endowed and so much greater things do work and that more easily and efficatiously But our intellect being included in the Corruptible flesh unless it shall exceed the way of the flesh and obtain a proper Nature cannot be united to these vertues for like to like And is in searching into the Rosie Crucian secrets of God and Nature altogether in efficatious for it is no easie thing for us to ascend to the Heavens for how shall he that hath lost himself in Morral Dust and ashes find God How shall he apprehend spiritual things that is swallowed up in flesh and bloud can man see God and live what fruit shall a grain of Corn bear if it be not first dead for we must dye I say dye to the world and to the flesh and all sences and to the whole man Animal who would enter into these closets of secrets Not because the body is seperated from the soul but because the soul leaves the body of which death S. Paul wrot to the Collossians ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ And elsewhere he speaks more clearly of himself I know a Man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tel God knows caught up unto the third heaven c. I say by this death pretious in the sight of God we must dye which happens to few and not always for very few whom God loves and are vertuous are made so happy And first those that are born not of flesh and blood but of God secondly those that are dignified by the blessed assistance of Angels and Genii the Power of Nature Influence of Planets and the Heavens and vertues of the figures and Ideas at their birth now this I humbly intreat you that you be not mistaken concerning me as if I at any time having received such divine things should boast of them to you or should arrogate any such thing to my self or could hope to have them granted to me Although I have hitherto kept my self unmarryed and free from the company of a woman yet I have been a souldier following the Armies of the King and in other Countries consecrated with mans bloud and exposed to all the blasts of inconstant fortune being crossed in my flesh in the world and worldly afairs and therefore could not obtain the sublime Gifts of the Immortal God But I would be accounted a director who always waiting at the dores shews to others which way they must go And here I present my self your most humble servant and honourer May the 9th 1664 ☽ 5 h â—â— A. M. John Heydon An Apologue for an Epilogue ABout the year 1648 we Studied Astronancy and Geomancy and writ the Harmony of the World in two Books the first Printed for Mr. Brome with the Temple of Wisdome at his house in Ivy-Lane The Holy Guide Elhavareuna being an Introduction to the Rosie Crucian philosophy and diversly Compiled in these Books in short words yet sufficient for those who are wise some of these things are written Methodically some without order pur posely some things are delivered by fragments some things are even hid and left for the search of the wise who more acutely contemplating these things which are written and diligently searching the Harmony of the World the Temple of Wisdome and the Holy Guide may obtain the Compleat rudiments of the Rosie Crucian Philosophy and also infallible experiments and if you desire to study these Books keep silence and Constantly conceal within the secret closet of your Religous breast so holy a determination for as Taphthartharath saith to publish to the knowledge of many an Art wholly filled with so great Majesty of the Deity is a sign of an Irreligious spirit and Divine Plato Commanded that holy and secret misteries should not be made publique to the people Pythagoras and Prophiry consecrated their followers to a religious Silence The Rosie Crucians with a certain terible authority of religion do exact an oath of silence from those they initiate to the Arts of Astromancy Geomancy Telesmaticall Images because by them the dead are raised to life by them they alter change and amend bodies cure the deseased prolong Life preserve Health renew youth in old folke make dwarfs grow great men make fools and Madmen wise and vertuous destroy the power of writchs by these Arts they make men fortunate in play law suits love victory over enimies in Horse Races in Gameing in Merchandize and at sea silencing the violent waves by these Arts they know all things and resolve all manner of questions present or to come as saith Beata YOu that admirers are of vertue stay Consider well what I to you shall say But you that sacred laws contemn prophane Away from hence return no more again But thou O my Eugenius whose mind is high Observe my words read them with thine eye And them within thy sacred breast repone And in thy journy thinke of God alone The Author of all things that cannot die Of whom we uow shall Treat And Engenius The odidactus Proclaims Beata Pulchra comes hence hence all ye prophane Theodidatus cryes from her grove refrain Now in celebrating the holy misteries of Hester Heaton and Beata Pulchra they only were admitted to be initiated Eugenius Theodidactus proclaiming the prophane vulgar to depart of these goddesses you may read at Large in our Temple of Wisdome in Esdras we read this precept concerning the Cabalisticall secret of the Hebrews declared in these verses thou shalt deliver those Books to the wisemen of the people whose hearts thou knowest can comprehend them and keep those secrets in the Temple of Wisdome you see obscure Figures of Astromancy and Geomancy whereunto is added the Alphabet of Angels or writing and Language of Haeven affording compendious words partly by Starrs Characters set in manner of a wheel thick the reading thereby being defended from the Curiosity of the prophane therefore my worthy Schollers in this science be silent and hide those things which are secret in Religion for the promise of silence is due to Religion as Tertullian affirms but they which do otherwise are in great danger Now concerning these secrets my Ingenious disciples I would tell you if it were lawfull to tell you you should know all if it were lawfull to hear it but both eares and tongue would contract the same guilt of rash curiosity the divine Goddess Hester Heaton sings in those verses the power of God The Heavens Ioves Roiall Pallace he 's King Fountain vertue and God of every thing He is omnipotent and in his brest Earth water fire and aire do take their rest Both night and day true
7 or 9 times untill you have a sufficient quantity of this powder that is to say a pound or more And this is the Calcination When you see your ☿ will ascend no more but remain in the bottome of a black colour and that is dead and brought perfectly into calx let it cool and remove your body into sand till it be turned into a red colour And this is the perfect precipitation prose without the help of any corrosive water take a little of this powder upon a hot iron plate if it fume dry it longer if not it is well Take of this red powder as much as you will dissolve and put thereupon at least his double weight of Lac Virginis and set in Balneo till you see your Lac Virginis stained a yellow or red colour then filter it from its feces and keep it by it self in a glass well stopped and dry the matter that remaineth in Ashes and pour thereon new Lac Virginis and do as before till you have drawn out all the tincture And so your ☿ is dissolved Put these solutions into a body luting to a head and in balneo distill away the Lac Virginis and the red oyl precipitate will remain which is fixed and needeth no distillation but is the tinging oyl of red Mercury and the red tincture of the red stone of ☿ and the soul and spirit of the same stone joyned Therefore take part of the white Sulphur reserved in the first Table and rubify it in ashes till it be red then imbile it with equal weight of the oyl of the tincture of this red ☿ and set it to dissolve in Balneo and when you see it is dissolved into a liquid substance take it out Then set it in ashes or under the fire to fix till the matter being dried remain fixed and fusible standing in a mean heat not over hot which try upon a hot Iron plate and if it fume not it is well if it do encrease your fire till it be totally fixed and dry If this matter be imbibed again with its oyl till it drink up as much as it will and again dissolved in Balneo and then dried in Ashes it will shew many colours and lastly appeared And then it is the stone penetrating and fusible apt for forme Join this imbiled matter or stone with the 4th part of the liquor or oyl of the red sulphur of Gold or the red Ferment and dissolve it in Balneo and drie it again and again dissolve it in a glasse hanged in the fume of hot water or Balneum and congeal it again till it stand like honey Then it is the perfect red Elixir of Mercury The Multiplication or Augmentation of the vertue and quantity is shewed in the former Chapter CHAP. IV. 1 Gold Sol. 2 Purged Gold 3 Calcination 4 Solution 5 Putrifaction 6 Filius solis Coelestis 7 Filia Lunae Coelestis THe putrifaction or purgation of gold is done as the Goldsmiths use to do by melting it with Antimony that the gold may remain in the bottome pure and clear from other mettalls which they call Regulus Take 4 or 5 ounces of this refined gold leaf or fileings and dissolve it in Lac Virginis mixed with equal weight of Aqua fortis wherein salt Armoniack sublimed is dissolved and when it is dissolved into a red Liquor or deep yellow then it is well calcined The solution and putrifaction is done as before you did with silver in the preparation of the white Ferment When you have your white sulphur of nature after putrifaction sticking to the sides of the glass let it cool and take out your glass and set it â—n Ashes and encrease your fire but not too much lest your matter vitrifie and let your ashes be no hotter then you can hold your hand therein and so let it stand till the sulphur be of a perfect deep red colour Then have you the red sulphur of the red Luminary If you resolve this red sulphur in spirit of wine or distilled Vinegar into an oyl it is then the Liquor of the red Luminary And Auram potabile curing all infirmities if the spirit of wine or vinegar be destilled from it But for this work it were better to dissolve it in our red Lac Virginis spoken of in the second Chapter of the second Book distill away the Lac from the sulphur in Ashes and the sulphur remaining in an oile is the Ferment of all stones to the red The augmentation of this red Elixir in vertue is with his red Tincture as before in the white Elixir with his white Tincture The augmentation in quantity is by projection upon the body of gold molten And that brittle matter of gold upon ☿ and if it be powdered and resolved with spirit of wine inan oyl as was said before of silver then it is the Quintessence of gold and the great Elixir of life and the spiritual ferment for the transmutation of mettals and for the health of mans body The 5 Chapter sheweth the abbreviation of the Red Elixir CHAP. V. 1 The Liquor of the red sulphur 2 Fermentation ALthough Raymund writing to King Robert was pleased to say That every Accurtation diminisheth the perfection because Medicines which are made by accurtation have less effect of transmutation which I also ascent to with him for a truth if the work be begun from the first fountain yet because this work hath its beginning from those things which before were brought to a perfect degree of perfection therefore in this there is no diminution of the perfection as the same Raymund witnesseth lib. Mecur pag. 103. saying thus Therefore it ought to be declared unto thee that if they be both well prepared and that thou begin with them thou wilt do a wonderful work without any great labour sooner then if thou should begin with one thing alone Therefore my son begin thy work of two things together as 〈◊〉 shewed to thee in the greater stone when we spoke of the twofold custody of the actions which are caused by the bodies and spirits By that which is caused by the bodies and spirits he means nothing else but sulphur willing that we should begin with sulphur to which I do so well agree that I begin this my accurtation with sulphur alone and I add no other body to this Elixir but onely the sulphur of ☿ alone created of his own body and spirit Take therefore 2 ounces of the white sulphur that was described in the first Chapter and set it in ashes to rubifie in 30 days it will be turned into red sulphur Which when you have done dissolve that sulphur in the red Tincture of Mecury when it is dissolved draw away the Tincture in the bottom remaineth the Liquor of the sulphur To which if you add a due proportion of the liquor of the red Luminary it will be perfect Ferment which if you dissolve and congeal as before is shewed it is then Elixir of very great vertue to the
spirits yet it would be better and much more Philosophical and more near to a metallick nature to be made of bodies then of spirits but if by Art the body should be turned into a spirit then the same body would be both body and spirit and not to be doubled but the stone might be made of such a body or spirit but let us return to our purpose It being granted that this our vitrioll is such a body according to which Paracelsus testifyeth in his Aurora Philosophorum under this Aenigura or secret of the Antient Philosophers Visicabis Interiora Terrae Reclificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam Out of the first letter of every word of this Aenigura is gathered this word VITRIOLUM by which is meant that thereof the stone or medicine may be made Therefore Paracelsus saith the inward parts of the Earth are to be visited not onely the Earth which is vitrioll but the Inward parts of the Earth he meaneth the sweetness and redness because there lieth hid in the inward parts of vitrioll a subtill noble and fragrant juice and pure oyle And this is especially to be noted the production of this Copper into vitrioll is not to be done neither by calcination of the fire nor distillation of the matter lest it be deprived of its greennesse which being lost it wants both power and strength Paracelsus speaks not one word of the preparation of this vitriol by whose silence many have erred therefore I determined to leave him here a little and to prosecute and follow the order of the Table wherefore begin with the calcination of the metall And note that this calcination of Copper is made that it may be turned into vitrioll and not the calcination of vitrioll made of copper Take therefore as much copper as you please and dissolve Calcination it in Aqua fortis to a fair green water then set it 3 or 4 days to disgest till the matter be clear which pour out into a limbeck and in Balneo draw away the corrasive water so that the matter remain dry for then it is calcined Then upon every 2 pound of this calcined matter pour a gallon of distilled Vinegar and lute it up in a glass and set it in balneo almost boyling the space of 7 days when it is cold put into a limbeck to distill away all the vinegar in balneo and in the bottom of the Alimbeck you shall have your vitrioll very well congealed far fairer then Romain vitrioll which is corporeal and metallick vitrioll Which Vitrioll I do not dissolve in rain-water like the Paracelsians but rather with Lac Virginis as before is taught in the former Chapters or in Raymunds Calcination water and after its dissolution and perfect digestion that is to say 15 days I put it into a limbeck and balneo draw off the Lac virginis which being done you shall find an oylie water green and clear upon which pour the spirit of wine and after it hath been digested 7 days and the spirit of wine distilled away in balneo you shall find your green water perfectly rectified made pure subtile and spiritual and apt for putrifaction for if it be not well dissolved and rarified it will not putrifie But now that I may join with Paracelsus in the manner of putrifaction I return to him and say with him commanding to disgest in a warm heat in a glass well closed the space of some moneths and so long till diverse colours appear and be at length red which sheweth the termination of its putrifaction But yet in this process this redness is not sufficiently fixed but is to be more fully purged from its feces in this manner Resolve it or rectifie it in distilled vinegar till the vinegar be coloured then filler it from its feces This is its true Tincture and best resolution and rectification out of which a blessed oyl is to be drawn This Tincture being thus resolved and rectified is to be put into a body with a limbeck and in balneo distil the vinegar gently away Then in sand or ashes lift up the spirit gently and temperately and when you see a fume ascend into the glass and red drops begin to fall out of the nose of the limbeck into the receiver then the red oyl beginneth to distil continue your distillation till all be come over when it is done you shall have the oyl in the receiver lifted up and separated from its Earth more delightful and sweet then any balsom or Aromatick without any sharpness at all which oyl is called the blood of the Lamb. In the bottome of the body you shall find a white shining Earth like snow which keep well from dust and so you have the clear Earth seperated from its oyl Take this white Earth and put it in a glass viol and put thereto equal weight of the oyl or soul and body will receive it and embrace it in a moment But that it may be turned into a stone when you have joined these two together set it into our furnace the space of 40 days and you shall have an absolute oyl of wonderful perfection wherewith Mercury and other imperfect mettals are turned into gold As Paracelsus was pleased to say The stone being thus made I now come to the fermentation without which it is not possible to give form to it neither will I adhere to the opinion of one man alone contrary to all the Philosophers alone that is to say Paracelsus repugnant to the rest of the Philosophers because they all of necessity have decreed to give form to the stone by ferment and union that is to say of an imperfect body and by how much the ferment is more spirituall the stone will be of so much more penetration and transmutation These things being promised I do not think it sit that you should proceed to projection upon Mercury instead of fermentation as Paracelsus teacheth or that the stone should be fermented his way with gold either corporeall or spiritual Which gold will be the foundation of the first projection but what do the Philosophers command us to do that projection that is to say fermentation be made of a perfect foundation and that upon imperfect bodies that medicines may be made which foundation of the stone or Elixir is not except it be onely the white or red ferment in respect of which both gold and silver are said to be imperfect bodies therefore this stone is to be fermented before it be projected upon the corporeal foundation or imperfect that is to say corporeal gold Therefore joyn this oyle to the fourth part of the oyle of the sulpur of gold and this is the true fermentation or conversion unto the Elixir Then Augment it in vertue by solution and coagulation and in quantity by projection first upon the corporeal foundation that is to say gold then that upon purified Mercury and that medicine upon other bodies which are most sit for projection that is to say